EXCLUSIVE: BRUSSELS bureaucrats have unveiled a sinister plot to spy on British families’ holiday spending as part of shocking plans to monitor cash flows across Europe.

EU pen-pushers want access to what UK holidaymakers are splashing their hard earned money on in a move which has been slammed as a serious and possibly illegal breach of civil liberties.

The draconian new laws, proposed by Jean-Claude Juncker’s EU Commission, have been drawn up under the guise of combatting lone wolf terror attacks by Islamic State (ISIS) jihadis.

But they could mean that millions of Britons travelling abroad for holidays on the continent are dragged into a sinister surveillance campaign, with their spending records being trawled even though they have done nothing wrong.

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Critics tonight branded the plans “rotten” and said they amounted to the creation of a huge surveillance superstate across the continent.

The controversial law change was sneaked into a lengthy anti-terror plan announced in the wake of the Paris, Brussels and Nice attacks.

Under the proposals spending on pre-paid debit cards, including top up travel cards used by thousands of Britons every year, will be subject to Big Brother style ID checks.

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The plans have been put forward by Jean-Claude Juncker's Commission

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Spain is the most popular holiday destination for Britons on the continent

People taking out a prepaid card, which can be loaded up with money in any given currency and then used like a debit card, will now have to provide their personal details upon registration.

Furthermore, the threshold for face-to-face payments that can be made on such cards at businesses like shops and restaurants is being reduced to just €150 (£125) unless the holder provides their name.

And in a sinister twist, finance companies will be required by law to store records of all transactions made by British tourists for at least five years, during which period they can be accessed by European governments.

All holidaymakers using pre-paid cards will also automatically be entered onto a centralised electronic database - like those used to monitor criminals - so that they can be quickly identified as account holders.

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Any excuse is used by Brussels bureaucrats to monitor our every movement and our every purchase

UKIP leadership candidate Bill Etheridge

On top of that, the safety protocols currently in place to stop government agencies from abusing the system are being watered down, so that Financial Intelligence Units (FIUs) will be able to access information “even without there having been a suspicious transaction report”.

Ukip leadership candidate Bill Etheridge said the proposal "stank of the Big Brother mentality which dominates the rotten heart of the EU".

He said: "Any excuse is used by Brussels bureaucrats to monitor our every movement and our every purchase, this time under the guise of 'security'."

The EU Commission insists that the new laws are necessary to combat the growing threat of Islamist terrorism across Europe, which has resulted in a number of bloody attacks.

Officials point out that the Paris attackers used prepaid cards to book and pay for their hotel rooms in the French capital so that they would not have to provide their real names to staff.

And they say the crackdown will include a blanket ban on making anonymous online payments using prepaid cards which will make it more difficult for would-be jihadis to obtain bomb-making equipment.

Announcing the measures, EU Commission First Vice-President Frans Timmermans said: ”Member states will be able to get and share vital information about who really owns companies or trusts, who is dealing in online currencies, and who is using pre-paid cards.”

However, the plans have sparked concern in Germany where one major daily paper described them as being of “such an extent” that they allow “no pause to think about if we are turning into a surveillance society”.

The respected paper Frankfurter Allgemeine warned that such a massive store of data could be abused by Brussels and big business to “analyse the behaviour of people” and pointed out that several of the measures appear to be illegal under European rulings.

Aside from British tourists, the changes will also affect millions of people across Europe who use pre-paid cards as a way of paying for things because they do not have a good enough credit score to obtain a credit card.

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Some member states even use pre-paid cards to hand out benefits, meaning those amongst the most vulnerable in society will be subjected to police state style checks on their spending.

And Ukip's defence spokesman Mike Hookem said that the draconian plans were another example of Brussels’ insatiable quest for power over all aspects of its 500 million citizens’ daily lives which would have "no impact on combatting terrorism".

He said: "The big policy decisions, like border control, are the areas where the EU could actually stop the free movement of terrorists, trafficked people and counterfeit goods and weapons.

"But instead they choose to concentrate on whether the Smith family from York purchased a bottle of wine on their holidays and burden small businesses with yet more bureaucracy."

Last year Britons made 32.2million holiday visits to the rest of the EU - up 10 per cent on the previous year - with Spain proving the most popular destination.

UK workers spent just under a billion pounds of business trips alone during that period, whilst holiday spending inside the Brussels bloc boomed by a whopping 12.4 per cent.